VGP – Viet Nam welcomed an unprecedentedly high number of foreign guests with over 1.58 million in February, representing a month-on-month growth of 5.8%.

Illustration photo

The General Statistics Office (GSO) attributed the big surge to attractive festivals at the beginning of the year.

The number of foreign guests travelled by air grew 7.6%; by road increased by 27.2%; and by sea down 2.9%. The number of international arrivals saw a year-on-year growth of 10.9% in which the number of Asian guests picked up 13.3%; Europeans (down 6.1%); Americans (up 1.5%); Australians (down 5.3%); and Africans (up 21.8%).

In the first two months of 2019, Viet Nam served nearly 3.09 million foreign tourists, up 8% against the same period last year. Over 2.42 million people (up 5.5%) travelled by air. About 611,700 others (up 29.5) travelled by road. About 54,900 others travelled by sea.

Earlier, the tourism sector planned to attract 18 million foreign tourists in 2019.

In 2018, the Vietnamese tourism sector enjoyed impressive results with a record 15.6 million international tourists and 80 million domestic travelers. Total revenue hit VND 620 trillion (around US$ 26.55 billion)./.